THE CHICAGO BLACK MOBILIZATION COMMITTEE AGAINST THE WAR IN IRAQ


NEWS ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Thursday, April 10, 2003
CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin at 312-236-8004

African-Americans continue protests
against Iraq war, despite Baghdad ‘deception’
Group to hold news conference to announce plans for
Renewed and organized anti-war actions

(CHICAGO, IL) – A group of prominent African American leaders will conduct a 2:30 p.m. news conference Saturday, April 12 to discuss mounting opposition to the U.S. involvement in Iraq. The Chicago Black Mobilization Committee Against the War in Iraq will hold the news conference in the rectory at Fernwood United Methodist Church, 10057 S. Wallace.

" The war in Iraq is far from over. The American army's entrance into Baghdad may very well just be the real beginning of the war,” Myers said. “The portrayal of Baghdad being secure and the end of the hostilities in Iraq are misleading. The Black Mobilization committee against the war is against any occupation of Iraq just as we stand solidly against the invasion of that nation.

He said the group would also seek answers about number of African American war casualties and seek to question the Bush administration on the status of Shoshana Johnson, the first African-American female prisoner of war, as well as other military personnel.

“Blacks oppose America's involvement in this war in record numbers. The Times reported 68 percent of African Americans oppose this war,” he said. “Our opposition will not cease until every American solider is brought home now. African Americans will suffer in greater disproportion that any other group as a result of our government's invasion, we have every reason and right to make our opposition known to the world.”

Myers, a civil rights and constitutional law professor, will be joined by a cross-section of the city’s most prominent professors, ministers, labor leaders, lawyers and student activists. More than 200 of Chicago’s thought-leaders attended the Committee's first meeting last weekend at the Ramada Inn in Hyde Park.


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